Daily Dose

When you ask Jon Stewart about The Daily Show, he goes to great lengths to emphasize that it's a comedy program, and not intended to be taken seriously as a source of news commentary. As he famously explained to a smug, bow-tied colleague who didn't seem to grasp that simple concept, “The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.” Still, if you watch The Daily Show after an hour of Lou Dobbs or The O'Reilly Factor or Hardball With Chris Matthews, it's hard to miss the irony that Stewart's half-hour of parody (on a network named Comedy Central, mind you) is typically more insightful and less absurd than those other shows, broadcast on what are purportedly cable news channels. You'd figure that this heated presidential primary, with its tales of crazed reverends and imaginary sniper fire, would have Stewart rubbing has hands in glee, like Larry King learning of the latest Britney meltdown. But in a phone interview with the Scene, Stewart—who performs stand-up at the Ryman Friday night—insists that he'd be “most delighted” to learn suddenly that “the world's out of crazy.” After all, as he so eloquently explains, “I'll always be able to Photoshop my head on a woman's body.”Scene: Is this your first Nashville show ever?Stewart: I believe this is my first Nashville show ever. Do I get a free sandwich out of that?Scene: I assume it's been a dream of yours to play the mother church of country music.Stewart: That's exactly right. The old Grand Ole Opry. The real one.Scene: So you're going to break out some Hank Williams?Stewart: I might break out the Hanks Williams, I might break out the Brian Williams. I'm not sure which Williams I'm going to break out. I'm going to break out one of the Williams boys. Yeah, it's going to be a nice stand-up show at the Ryman, and I'm looking forward to it. I started out doing stand-up.Scene: What do you get out of stand-up that you don't get out of doing The Daily Show?Stewart: I guess the check is made out to me, and I don't have to split everything with the correspondents. It's like going back and practicing your craft. Just playing the clubs, getting back in there and touching a little bit of the origin stone.... We work really hard to try and craft the show every day and get it to be as tight as we can, but within that you lose a certain sense of the performance and spontaneity you get from a live performance.Scene: When you first did stand-up, were you political? Stewart: I think about as much as I am now. I still don't consider [The Daily Show] a political show. I think it's more of an emotional show. And that's typically what the stand-up was as well—reacting to whatever is viscerally on your mind at that moment.Scene: But a lot of emotion is triggered by politics these days.Stewart: Well it was my mistake for leaving CNN on. That was stupid.Scene: Any suggestions for making Tennessee a blue state?Stewart: I was unaware that you were able to do that. Is that some sort of weird Merlin trick? I don't have a ton of suggestions other than for the blue party to find a candidate that...when was the last time they went Democrat?Scene: Well, Al Gore famously lost here.Stewart: I'm sure that didn't have much to do with him losing the overall election, did it? I mean the margin of his loss must have been greater than just whether or not he took his home state. Surely that couldn't have been the difference.Scene: Al Gore is a polarizing figure around our offices. Some of us admire him, but a couple of folks here think he's a conniving, self-promoting hypocrite. What's your take?Stewart: The thing you have to do is sort of judge whether or not that person is doing something out of an honest belief. I can always respect that more than someone that you believe is doing something for an ulterior motive. I think he truly believes.... I just don't think you could sit through those kinds of shitty slide shows if you didn't really believe. PowerPoint presentations are boring enough. It's a complicated issue.... Certainly you don't get to be where he is without leaving a pretty hefty carbon footprint. But then you also have to figure at least he's trying to do something. I don't begrudge anyone their thoughts on it. What I do think is difficult is when people dismiss it without examining any of the science or anything, as just purely political. If it comes from somebody on the left, they must reject it. I would feel the same way about people who say, “Oh, if it comes from someone on the right, I must reject that.” I think there's way too much of that. I'll accept that from Giants and Jets fans, but in terms of political ideology and recipes for change or reform, I think that's a mistake.Scene: So do you really hate Tucker Carlson, or just bow ties?Stewart: Barely know him. It's amazing—it's been set up as the Hatfields and McCoys, as though it's this longstanding thing. Met the guy once, didn't have enough to eat before I went on the show, hit ’em all pretty hard and then never really saw him again. Can't lie and say I was a fan, but it certainly wasn't personal.Scene: So you have nothing against bow ties. Stewart: Look—do I like seeing them on people under, let's say, 80? Probably not. Feels a little bit like a monocle...unless you're Mr. Peanut.Scene: Besides Tucker, has anyone else not really gotten that the show was a parody?Stewart: Oh, they all do. I think they believe that because we comment on social events and political events, somehow we believe ourselves to be a part of that. And we don't. We're not trying to get anybody, we're not trying to accomplish our agenda, we're trying to do an entertaining show. If the criticism of us is, “I don't really find your show entertaining or funny,” that's a valid thing to feel and say, and I know a lot of people feel that way. But to suggest that somehow we have failed our responsibility to the public discourse by not exercising the same journalistic standards that we demand of CNN, then you're a little lost up your own ass at that point.Scene: Many people would say that you actually exercise stronger journalistic standards than CNN.Stewart: We take things out of context, but we try not to ruin the intent.Scene: I'm looking at the CNN website. The most popular story on there right now is, “Paula Abdul gets confused on Idol.”Stewart: What? Paula Abdul gets confused?... Wait a minute—dog bites man, that's not a story. Man bites dog, that's a story. Now here's one: Paula Abdul solves theory of relativity. That's a story. Paula Abdul confused? That really doesn't seem like a story.Scene: But people do kind of take you seriously now as a news commentator. Does that make you uncomfortable?Stewart: We are what we are. We have an editorial viewpoint about what we see on the news. But taking us seriously? I don't even know what that means.Scene: I guess people feel they become more informed by your show.Stewart: Well, I think people become more informed by any information they absorb. I just think in general consumers now are so sophisticated in the information that they synthesize, the information that they can cobble together. Some people are looking for that information to reaffirm their worldview. Look, the majority of us tend to go toward that direction. Other people are...still able to be swayed by facts on the ground, reality, those kinds of things.Scene: I know this will come as a shock to you, with a name like Silverman, but I'm a fellow Red Sea pedestrian. How do you feel our takeover of the media is going?Stewart: Not as well as it could have been. I thought we gave the pope a little too much coverage. I was a little surprised by that, especially that close to Passover. I thought there'd be a lot more, “Here's a great matzoh brei recipe.” But we do what we can.Scene: According to Wikipedia, you are officially a pundit. But on Wikipedia, “pundit” has two definitions: an expert or opinion leader, or a 19th century native surveyor who explored regions to the north of India for the British empire.Stewart: That's me.Scene: We also noticed that you have a fondness for Buffalo Tom? Is that true?Stewart: That happens to be true. I will give it to Wikipedia on that. I love joyful things. Their music is unbelievable.Scene: We then looked at Buffalo Tom's Wikipedia entry, and it said they were the final musical guest on The Jon Stewart Show, “wherein he showered the band with moderate enthusiasm for their sound and their musical integrity.”Stewart: Can you shower someone with moderate enthusiasm? I think if you're going to shower someone with something, it seems like it wouldn't be so tepid.Scene: Who makes better guests, liberals or conservatives?Stewart: I don't think their ability to be a guest generally is reflected upon their politically ideology. It's like anything else, like when people say, “Is America ready for a black president?” Well, if it's Mr. T, probably not.Scene: Have you had guests on that you thought were complete nincompoops before they were on your show, but they wound up winning you over?Stewart: Since the 1870s I have not thought of people as “nincompoops.” But no, generally my preconceived are justified.Scene: Speaking of nincompoops....Stewart: Worst segue ever.  Scene: ...we saw your bit about Antonin Scalia's 60 Minutes appearance, where he made a distinction between punishment and torture.Stewart: Here's what I didn't get about that. Let's say a journalist does not name a source. To extract that information, what do you do? You hold them in contempt of court and you put them in jail. That is a punishment to get them to give you the information. Isn't that exactly what torture is? It is a punishment meted out to get information. The idea that somehow because it's extraction-oriented...it's almost like they've set up a maze, and they can just draw the lines over the openings whenever they want to. “It's not punishment because, uh, they never went through due process.” “Well, then let them go through due process.” “They can't. They're enemy combatants. They don't get due process.” Arrrrggh!Scene: Is it possible there will ever be a better president for fodder than George W. Bush?Stewart: Uh, yes. I would take any. I would take different fodder over soul-crushing fodder any day of the week.Scene: Does having Colbert come on after you, since he is obvious parody, allow you to be a little more serious? Or is he more of the Dr. Phil to your Oprah?Stewart: I guess he's more of a Judge Joe Brown to my [Marilyn] Milian. I don't know...our shows are of the same genetic material. I think they both exist on their own, but hopefully together they complete a nice picture. [laughs] You know what's sad? You're clearly far more thoughtful about this than I am. I'm like, “Geez, you know, I never thought of that.” I've been sitting up here playing Minesweeper.Scene: Is it hard to conceal your love for Obama?Stewart: I think there are things that he's done that have been very impressive to me. There are things that Hillary Clinton's done that have been very impressive to me. There are things that John McCain's done that have been very impressive to me. There are things that they've all done that I thought, “Hey, what the fuck was that?” So that's the stage that I'm in right now. I think we're slightly more focused on the absurdity of the campaign more than we are the actual merits. Right now, I liken it to The Apprentice, where you go through this enormously taxing, long, very abstract process that actually has absolutely nothing to do with running the corporation. That's sort of what I feel like the campaign is: “Hey, we finally beat these idiots into submission.” Scene: When you see something like the Rev. Wright thing, are you ever conflicted, thinking, “Oh my God, this is the most ridiculous thing in the world,” but at the same time thinking, “Oh great, this is going to be good for the show”?Stewart: No. It's a comedy show. Dude, I'll always be able to Photoshop my head on a woman's body. I don't have any concern that like, “Oh my god! I might run out of crazy shit to do!” That is not an issue. I'd be most delighted if we came in one day and it was, you know, “Oh my God! The world's out of crazy. What are we gonna do?”Scene: Last but not least, I'm sick of my co-workers and this backwater town. Can I have a job?Stewart: A stunning close to the interview.Scene: Wasn't that great? I stumbled over my best line.Stewart: It still crushed.